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THE MINISTRY AS A LIFE WORK 



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THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 

NEW YORK • BOSTON • CHICAGO • DALLAS 
ATLANTA • SAN FRANCISCO 

MACMILLAN & CO.. Limite© 

LONDON • BOMBAY • CALCUTTA 
MBLBOURNB 

THE MACMILLAN CO. OP CANADA. Ltd. 

TORONTO 



THE MINISTRY AS 
A LIFE WORK 



BY 
Rev. ROBERT LEE WEBB, S. T. M. 

CORRESPONDING SECRETARY, 
THE NORTHERN BAPTIST EDUCATION SOCIETY 



THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 
1922 

All rights reserved 



PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 






Copyright, 1922, 
By the MACMILLAN COMPANY. 



Sei up and electrotyped. Published September, 1922. 



BROWN BROTHERS, LINOTYPERS 
NEW YORK 



SEP (3 1922 

©CI.A681763 



CONTENTS 

I. The Problem of the Ministry ... 1 

II. The Discouragements to the Ministry 9 

III. The Call to the Ministry ... 29 

IV. The Candidate for the Ministry . 35 
V. The Training for the Ministry . . 48 

VI. The Opportunity for the Ministry . 61 

VII. The Attractions of the Ministry . 73 

VIII. The Rewards of the Ministry . . 82 

IX. The Permanency of the Ministry . 90 



The Ministry As a Life Work 



The harvest indeed is plenteous, but the laborers 
are iew.—Matt. 9:37. 



CHAPTER I 

THE PROBLEM OF THE MINISTRY 

In the progress of the years the Church of 
Christ has faced many serious problems, — prob- 
lems that, if they had not been settled rightly, 
would have subverted the life of the church and 
prevented it from accomplishing the work for 
which it was established. 

No problem, however, is more potent with 
possibilities of good or ill to both the church and 
the world than the question now confronting it — 
the adequate supply of well-trained ministerial 
leaders for the pastorate and other forms of rec- 
ognized activities in the Christian ministry. 

This is not an altogether new problem in the 
history of American life. It was prominent in 

•I 



2 JHE MINISTRY AS A LIFE WORK 

the early part of the Nineteenth Century as the 
tide of population swept over the Alleghanies and 
flowed down the valley of the Mississippi and 
its tributaries. 

New settlements sprang up as by magic, and 
churches were established everywhere, but there 
were no men to fill their pulpits. The situation 
at that time was serious, but it was not so acute 
as the condition that faces the church at the pres- 
ent hour. 

We may emphasize the worth of lay leader- 
ship in the church, and recognize the splendid 
values of the printed page in giving the message 
of the gospel, and yet (we cannot escape the 
conviction that the success of the church in the 
present, and its welfare in the future, depends 
upon the numbers and quality of its ministers. 
The church, humanly speaking, stands or falls 
upon its ability to summon strong young men 
to its special service in sufficient numbers to meet 
its needs. 

The comparative failure of the church to 
thus command its youth at the present time 
IS apparent to everybody, and is receiving 



THE MINISTRY AS A LIFE WORK 3 

emphasis through current discussions in the public 
press. 

The chaos and restlessness, so marked in, 
other spheres of human society, are reflected in 
the religious life of our times. The clanging 
noises of the world are drowning the still small 
voice that speaks within the soul summoning it 
to the divine service of the ministry. The appeal 
of physical sense threatens to submerge the 
conscience of the nation. The seriousness of the 
situation was not appreciated for some time, but 
church leaders are now awakening to conditions 
and their possible dangers. 

Great city churches, equally with small country 
parishes, are having difficulty in securing min- 
isters, and some of them remain pastorless for 
long periods of time. 

The Interchurch Survey, made in 1920, tells 
us that in **One denomination 3,388 congrega- 
tions did not have regular pastoral care. In 
another there were 994 fewer ministers than in 
1 9 14. In the New England section of one 
denomination 35 per cent, of the congregations 
were without regular ministers in 191 5. In a 



4 THE MINISTRY AS A LIFE WORK 

denomination having 963 congregations, only 
627 had settled pastors." 

The Year Book for 1920 of one of the largest 
denominations reported 456 men ordained and 
450 men deceased. But this apparent gain of 
six was changed to a large loss by the retire- 
ments from active service ensuing from age and 
physical disability, and above all, from the drift 
of ministers into other occupations. 

This drift, according to competent observers, 
amounted in the church as a whole to twenty-five 
per cent, of those ordained. 

This dearth of ministers is the result of a 
very serious shortage in the number of men who 
are preparing themselves for such work. 

At a conference of theological schools held in 
Cambridge in 191 8, it was asserted that in 19 15 
there were 1,000 men less preparing for the 
ministry than in 1895. Fourteen Presbyterian 
Seminaries reported in 1896, 960 students; in 
191 6, 840 students; and in 192 1 only 639 stu- 
dents. In 191 1 the Congregational Seminaries 
reported 434 students and in 1921, 483 students, 
an apparent gain of 49. But this gain was largely 



THE MINISTRY AS A LIFE WORK 5 

in two schools that had organized strong depart- 
ments where large numbers of the students were 
not preparing for the ordained ministry. The 
other seminaries, six in number, showed a loss of 
about 37 per cent. In 1910 nine Baptist 
theological schools reported 1,258 students, 
while in 1921 eleven institutions reported only 
838 students. In 1920 twelve colleges, that 
usually send large numbers of students into the 
ministry, had only 27 such graduates. 

Even in the pre-college age the same serious 
lack of interest in the ministry as a life work 
seems to exist. One secretary reports that in 
a week's campaigning, during which he held 
some ninety personal interviews with boys of 
High School and Academy age, he found only 
two boys who had definitely set their minds on 
becoming ministers. Engineering In its various 
forms, banking, farming, and mercantile pursuits 
were largely in the ascendency in their appeal to 
the boys as worthwhile occupations. 

Such facts as these are simply indicative of 
general conditions. They suggest the seriousness 
of the situation that confronts the church, and 



6 THE MINISTRY AS A LIFE WORK 

call for wise action upon the part of religious 
leaders. 

It is not simply a question of supplying men 
for the forward work of the church; it is also a 
question of maintaining the working force at its 
present strength and efficiency. 

Sporadic efforts are being put forth to meet 
the situation, by awakening the churches to the 
consideration of conditions and by enlisting the 
young men and women in college and academy 
for some form of special service. 

In the Southland the attempts to meet the sit- 
uation have been comparatively successful and 
promising reports are heard from other sections. 
It should be noted, however, that these gains are 
more apparent than real, for large numbers of 
the new ministerial students in the colleges and 
theological schools are ordained men, already 
listed in denominational Year Books as ministers 
and pastors. They do not represent new acces- 
sions to the profession or prospective candidates. 

Moreover, while these efforts to enlist stu- 
dents for the ministry have their value and are 
necessary, we must remember that there is a vast 



THE MINISTRY AS A LIFE WORK 7 

difference between a lad in the academy or 
college, promising to go where the Master wants 
him to go, to enter the ministry if God reveals 
it to him as duty, and actually entering the min- 
istry. It Is a far cry from high school or 
freshman year in college to the ordaining coun- 
cil, and many temptations must be passed before 
the consecrating hands are laid on the head of 
the young candidate. 

We must remember, also, that enlistment cam- 
paigns cannot produce Immediate fruitage. Some 
decisions to enter the ministry are made by 
young men after they enter college, but influences 
leading them to adopt this calling usually can be 
traced far back of the college age. 

Ideals and hopes and longings for manhood's 
occupations begin to influence our young people 
in their early 'teens. A mother's prayer, a 
father's example, the touch of some minister or 
missionary who has appealed to the lad's Ideal 
of heroism, gives the initial direction to dreams 
and aspirations. 

The effective campaign, the campaign that will 
ultimately give to the church the workers it 



8 THE MINISTRY AS A LIFE WORK 

needs, must go back to the home and the lower 
grades of school. It must sound the knightly 
call to the boys and girls and cause their hearts 
to thrill with the longing for the ministry as 
something worth while, something that has in it 
the atmosphere of romance and adventure that 
surrounded the Knights of King Arthur's Court. 



Consider him that hath endured such gainsaying 
of sinners against himself, that ye wax not weary, 
fainting in your souls. — Heh. 12:3. 



CHAPTER II 

DISCOURAGEMENTS TO THE MINISTRY 

The question Inevitably arises: — ^Why is the 
ministry failing to attract our choice young men, 
why are so many ignoring this the oldest and 
the most sacred of the professions? 

Many elements enter into the problem, but 
they range themselves under a few general 
principles. 

The first and most obvious reason is found in 
the economic situation. 

The time has long since passed when even the 
village parson could think himself as ^'passing 
rich on forty pounds a year," or "supply his 
simple needs" with any such stipend. The eco- 
nomic pressure is felt in every home, and no- 
where more than in the home of the minister. 
His position forces him to certain high standards 
of living and public action. Personally he may 
be content to live in the simplest style, but his 

9 



10 THE MINISTRY AS A LIFE WORK 

public position requires him to dress well, to 
see that his wife and children are respectably 
clothed, and to conduct his home with an air of 
prosperity, comfort and hospitality. 

Moreover, he is financially exploited for every 
good cause, and ofttimes the church expects his 
name to head the list of its contributors. 

Sometimes the parsonage is both the minister's 
house and the center of the social and religious 
activities of the parish, — a sort of community 
house. But the minister must maintain these 
standards and meet these requirements upon a 
salary that averages $563 less than the minimum 
set by investigators for the subsistence of the 
ordinary workingman's family. 

At the present time, carpenters command $10 
per day, shoeworkers $75 a week, and machin- 
ists $3,000 a year. S ich compensations for 
hand-workers may seem abnormal in contrast 
with the salaries of brain workers, but the wages 
of such workers will never sink to the low levels 
of present ministerial salaries. The Interchurch 
Survey presents some startling facts concerning 
ministerial support. According to that survey, 



THE MINISTRY AS A LIFE WORK 11 

of **the 170,000 clergymen In the United States 
in 1 91 6, less than one-half of them received 
more than $700 per year. Only 1,671 ministers, 
or less than one per cent., had a total income 
of $3,000 or more. Eighty- four per cent, of 
the ministers receive less than $1,000 per 
year." **Out of every hundred ministers only 
one receives $4,000 or more; two receive 
$3yOOO or more; seven receive $2,000 or* 
more; sixteen receive $1,500 or more; and 
eighty- four receive less than $1,000. Thirteen 
out of every hundred ministers receive less 
than $500. 

If the incomes of the laymen were propor- 
tionate to these meagre salaries, the clergy could 
find no fault. But in the churches themselves, 
ofttimes we have vast disparity between the 
physical comfort of tlj^ pastor and his parish- 
ioners, the members seeming to forget that the 
spiritual leader of the flock should share in the 
material prosperity that is given to Its members. 
God calls some men to preach and some to make 
money, but He expects those who make money 
to share It with those who preach. The beauties 



12 THE MINISTRY AS A LIFE WORK 

of sacrifice appear to best advantage when shared 
alike by all God's people. 

It is obvious that in an age when material 
influences are so potent, and the very comforts 
of life so expensive, it is unbrotherly in spirit 
and unwise in policy to ask any class or profes- 
sion to make the material sacrifices that are 
required of the ministry. Such requirements will 
inevitably react upon the personnel of the min- 
istry and tend to drive from it the very type of 
men most needed by the profession. 

In close relation to this limitation of money 
earning power is the limitation of the earning 
period. The financial basis of the ministry 
seems to be different from that of all other pro- 
fessions. The lawyer and the physician can 
hope not only to lay up a competence for old 
age, but to have their earning power extend until 
physical infirmity lays them aside. Moreover, 
as long as their physical and mental faculties are 
maintained, added years of age adds to their 
supposed value to society, and increases their 
earning power. 

The minister faces absolutely different condi- 



THE MINISTRY AS A LIFE WORK 13 

tions. He is required to spend in training for 
his work just as many years as the lawyer or 
physician or professor, but when they are at 
their zenith of power and usefulness — honored 
by reason of their experience — he finds himself 
discounted, and pulpits closed to him by reason 
of age. 

Pension systems, nobly devised, help in some 
measure to alleviate these conditions, but they 
are not the real answers to this social injustice 
practised against the minister. Such schemes are 
at best only salves to sore hearts and soothing 
syrups to anxious souls. 

Is it any marvel that experiencing such condi- 
tions some excellent men lose the fine idealism 
that led them to enter the ministry, and either 
become mercenary in spirit or forsake the work? 
It is the custom to condemn the minister who 
leaves the calling and enters business. He is 
often criticised both ungraciously and cruelly. 
But such action may not be a sign of venality, 
but an indication of mental and moral integrity 
and high courage. No minister can maintain the 
splendid fervor necessary for his work, or reach 



14 THE MINISTRY AS A LIFE WORK 

any high plane of success, who has lost the noble 
idealism that enables him to esteem his work as 
beautiful, as necessary to mankind, as given him 
of God. 

Some men, painfully conscious of this loss of 
soul vision and its implications, conscientiously 
turn from the ministry to other occupations. 

A few years since. The Standard of Chicago 
printed a letter, quoted by Dr. Robertson, from 
a minister who was leaving the ministry, in which 
the writer said: **I am tired; tired of being the 
only one in the church from whom real sacrifice 
is expected; tired of straining and tugging to get 
Christian people to live like Christians; tired of 
planning work for my people and then being 
compelled to do it myself or see it left undone; 
tired of dodging my creditors when I would not 
need to if I had what was due me; tired of the 
affrighting vision of a penniless old age. I am 
not leaving Christ, I love Him. I shall still try 
to serve Him.'* This may be an extreme in- 
stance, and yet it does not stand alone. More 
than one minister, tired of these bitter experi- 
ences, finds it difficult to conscientiously or 



THE MINISTRY AS A LIFE WORK 15 

joyously summon his own sons, or the sons of 
his church, to enter the profession that leads 
through so many Gethsemane experiences. 

Moreover, choice young men looking forward 
to life's work, inevitably consider these things as 
factors entering into their decisions. What 
more natural than to ask — *Why should other 
men have so much and the minister so little ? Is 
the minister being treated fairly? Why should 
I sacrifice the material goods of life or demand 
such denials upon the part of my family?" The 
truth IS, every thoughtful man, whether of the 
clergy or laity, should face the question: — **Is 
It right to ask the minister to contribute so 
much to the welfare of the nation and the 
uplift of humanity; to brighten the lot of all men, 
and yet to have for himself or his loved ones 
no adequate share in the material benefits that 
flow from these improved conditions of society?" 

2. The second reason that is discouraging 
many excellent young men Is the assumption and 
assertion that the minister has no worthy place 
in the community; that his contribution to society 
is not of any great value; that his task is not 



16 THE MINISTRY AS A LIFE WORK 

a man's sized job. This feeling, widely preva- 
lent in certain circles of society, has been the 
subject of discussion and re-emphasis lately in 
some of our popular magazines. 

In opening his Yale Lectures, Dr. A. J. F. 
Behrends called attention to the effects upon the 
individual of such suspicions concerning the 
worthiness of his vocation, and enforced the 
necessity of the worker maintaining the convic- 
tion that his labor was necessary to the welfare 
of the world. "No man can achieve solid and 
satisfactory success in any calling, who is not 
convinced that the services which he renders are 
of substantial benefit to the public, and that what 
he gives is a full equivalent for what he receives. 
He who suspects that he is merely tolerated, or 
that he occupies the place of a dependent, or 
who discovers that he is retained when he has 
ceased to supply a living demand, inevitably 
suffers in the consciousness of manly independ- 
ence; and where manhood shrivels, work loses 
its dignity and power." "To this wholesome 
law," Dr. Behrends adds, *'the pulpit is no 
exception." 



THE MINISTRY AS A LIFE WORK 17 

The present propaganda of suggestive suspi- 
cion and distrust concerning the ministry, has 
resulted in just such mischievous reactions in 
both men already in the ministry and sturdy 
youths who have been considering it as a pos- 
sible calling. Why enter a profession where 
manly qualities are at discount? Why remain in 
a calling that Is not rendering worthwhile serv- 
ice — especially when other and more essential 
occupations yield greater rewards of material 
good? 

It Is perfectly legitimate to ask the reasons 
for the minister's existence In the community, to 
question what his place Is In modern life, and 
what Is his real contribution to the welfare of 
mankind. 

All trades and professions are subjects for 
such questioning and must justify themselves to 
society. 

The danger point In such questioning of the 
minister's task Is In the character of the ques- 
tioner. Too often, men, who by nature and 
prejudices are unfitted to pass judgment upon the 
higher values of life, sit In the seat of the 



18 THE MINISTRY AS A LIFE WORK 

judges. They do not understand the nature of 
the minister's task; they cannot see or realize 
that he is dealing with intangibles, with processes 
and results so largely in the realm of the spir- 
itual that their evaluation is difficult, and to the 
man who looks for material tokens almost 
impossible. When the carpenter builds a house, 
or the shoemaker completes a pair of shoes, you 
see the thing he has been doing; the finished 
product is evident; but the minister is working 
with minds and spirits,— he is molding char- 
acter, and much of his work must be unseen by 
human eyes. The passing of time, however, is 
certain to reveal the comparative values of such 
occupations. 

The maker of sandals in ancient Capernaum 
filled an important place, but the fame of that 
city rests, not upon the maker of sandals, but 
upon its association with the name of the Naz- 
arene prophet and teacher. The tent-maker of 
Corinth, in whose workshop Saul of Tarsus 
earned his living, did a worthwhile work, but 
we have forgotten his name, while his employee, 
the preacher, proclaimed a message whose influ- 



THE MINISTRY AS A LIFE WORK 19 

ence sapped the foundations of Imperial Rome 
and built a new civilization. 

The Great Teacher said long ago: **Man 
shall not live by bread alone." Men must have 
ideals, visions and hopes that they endeavor to 
realize for themselves and in society. Character 
is built, not of brick and stone or bread and 
meat, but of the things we call dreams, visions 
and ideals. Character is the fruitage of princi- 
ples, and principles are the blossoming of dreams 
and ideals. The foundations of a nation, the 
structure of its society, is not laid in wealth or 
territory, but in the character of its citizenship. 

The minister's task is to give the people the 
stuff out of which character is formed, and to 
guide and inspire them in the use of this char- 
acter material. This is not a task that can be 
esteemed lightly or measured with yardstick or 
scales. 

It is far easier to build a cathedral, to erect 
a factory, to lay an ocean cable, or to construct 
a railroad, than to mold a life into a thing of 
beauty and nobility, to regenerate the slum sec- 
tion of a great city, or to overthrow the igno- 



20 THE MINISTRY AS A LIFE WORK 

ranee and bigotry of a false religion and substi- 
tute in its place Christian conceptions and 
principles. It is easier to give men jobs to earn 
bread, than visions of God that satisfy souls, 
and interpret for them, time and eternity. 
But as H. G. Wells makes Mr. Brittling say: 
**Religion is the first thing and the last thing, 
and until a man has found God and has been 
found by God, he begins at no beginning, he 
works to no end. He may have his friendships, 
his partial loyalties, his scraps of honor. But 
all these things fall into place and life falls Into 
place only with God." 

The minister's task is really the hardest task 
given to mortal man, but it Is absolutely funda- 
mental to the perpetuity of the state and nation, 
and to the welfare of the race. Upon the min- 
ister's success or failure depends practically all 
that is valuable in human society. His work 
controls the development of human history in its 
noblest aspects, and his profession remains a 
living, burning need of the race until the **king- 
doms of this world become the kingdoms of our 
God and His Christ." 



THE MINISTRY AS A LIFE WORK 21 

3. A very potent influence diverting our 
young men from the regular lines of the ministry 
is the pressure for workers in benevolent and 
semi-religious organizations. 

In past days the young man who desired to 
do religious work found himself limited prac- 
tically to the pastorate of a single congregation 
or to missionary service. But our conceptions of 
what is religious service have been continually 
widening, and the field of opportunity conse- 
quently has been broadened. 

Many avenues of endeavor offer outlet to the 
instinct or desire to serve the race religiously. 
The Young Men's Christian Association, tem- 
perance and other reform movements, social 
uplift societies, benevolent and charitable organ- 
izations — all of them forms of life where val- 
uable service to humanity may be rendered — 
present their claims upon the life and talent of 
the youth of this generation. And these new 
fields usually promise two advantages over the 
regular ministry — they offer better financial re- 
turns, and are free from many of the limitations 
that surround the pastor or worker attached to 



22 THE MINISTRY AS A LIFE WORK 

the church organization. The call for competent 
workers in these fields is just as great as the call 
for men in the regular ministry, and it is not 
surprising that many choice young men choose 
such forms of service. As one stalwart youth 
said to his minister father who was pleading 
with him to enter the ministry: *T am doing 
religious service. I am helping to bring in God's 
kingdom through the organization with which I 
am working, and at the same time I am getting 
three times the salary that you have received. 
Why should I give up the comparative freedom 
of my place and its comfortable income for the 
meagre salary and limitations of a church 
pastorate.'* 

Of course, the young men who argue thus fail 
to see that these organizations outside of the 
church have no future apart from the church; 
that their continuance is dependent upon the 
favor and support of the church, and that they 
can offer careers for men only as the church 
gives them of its comfort and assistance. Roger 
W. Babson, in his book, "Religion and Busi- 
ness,'* asserts that "religion is the greatest unde- 



THE MINISTRY AS A LIFE WORK 23 

veloped resource of America to-day." But this 
resource that means so much to the nation and 
the world will not be tapped by semi-religious 
organizations or independent prospectors. The 
church, with its complex and far-reaching organ- 
ization, its heritage of tradition, and its centuries 
of capitalized life and devotion, is the only insti- 
tution that can successfully make available for 
the state and society this mighty resource of 
religion. 

4. A very obvious reason for the failure of 
our young people to consider the ministry seri- 
ously lies in the attitude of the church. For a 
long time the churches have neglected to empha- 
size the ministry as a divine calling, to pray for 
the young men to give their lives to it, and to 
hold it up to the young people as the great thing 
to be desired. 

Prayer services are seldom devoted to consid- 
eration of the claims of the ministry upon the 
church and its young people; and ministers are 
singularly reticent about presenting the matter in 
the pulpit. 

Several years since, a general secretary put the 



24 THE MINISTRY AS. A LIFE WORK 

question before a series of church associations 
representing over three hundred churches, and to 
his surprise only one per cent, of the churches 
had given any consideration to the matter at 
prayer meeting or stated service within a year, 
while representatives of scores of churches could 
not remember any public presentation to their 
membership of the work of the ministry and its 
claims upon the young life of the church. 

A few generations ago it was not unusual for 
parents to dedicate their new-born sons to this 
holy work; and when those sons, grown to man- 
hood, adopted the profession, to rejoice in their 
boy's choice as the greatest reward that could 
come to their faith. But these new days have 
brought a totally different attitude. Many par- 
ents seem to regard it as a misfortune when 
their boys want to enter the ministry; and some, 
when they see signs of Interest in the profession 
upon the part of their sons, deliberately seek to 
divert the mind to other trades and professions. 

Perhaps the prevalent critical attitude toward 
the minister has influenced some of these parents, 
and certainly it has had a chilling effect upon 



THE MINISTRY AS A LIFE WORK 25 

the enthusiasm and devotion of some of the 
young people. 

Apparently everybody In the church under- 
stands how to run the church better than the 
minister, and does not hesitate to let him know 
it. Every member, and many who are not mem- 
bers, feel perfectly competent to instruct the 
minister in theology, biblical interpretation and 
other religious subjects. The physician or the 
lawyer or the engineer Is supposed to know his 
profession better than the layman, but everybody 
feels abundantly able to pass judgment upon the 
minister's work, and to teach him the principles 
of his profession. 

Is It any marvel that high-strung young men 
resent this attitude and decline to enter a pro- 
fession where It is possible for them to be sub- 
jected to such humiliations? 

The red-blooded young man does not want to 
be glorified because of his profession, but he 
does want to feel that his work Is worth while, 
that the church at least respects his leadership 
and service. 

The church must catch a new vision of its 



26 THE MINISTRY AS A LIFE WORK 

ministry, place it in a nobler position of honor, 
and give, to those who adopt it as a profession, 
the respect and attention given to other pro- 
fessions. 

The economic situation, the critical attitude 
concerning the worthiness of the minister's con- 
tribution to society, the demand for workers in 
other related occupations, and the apparent 
unconcern of the church are all evident reasons 
for the decline in the ministry and its failing 
appeal to our young men; but they are not final 
causes. 

The ultimate reasons lie deep In the spirit of 
man, in the pervading atmosphere of the age, 
and in the very nature of the call to the min- 
istry and the minister's work. 

Two things must be remembered. During the 
last fifty years we have been passing through a 
tremendous intellectual revolution. Philosophy, 
history, pedagogy, and theology have all been 
influenced by the discoveries in biology and other 
physical sciences. The intellectual attitude for a 
generation has been that of questioning. The 
bases of religious faith have therefore come 



THE MINISTRY AS A LIFE WORK 27 

under the microscope of investigation and rea- 
son. This attitude carried into the classroom 
of our schools and applied to religious questions 
without tact or discrimination, has undoubtedly 
had its harmful reactions upon the young men. 
The atmosphere of doubt and questioning is not 
the atmosphere in which preachers are bom and 
reared. 

It should be noted, also, that lately the spir- 
itual life of the churches of our land has not 
been of the type to emphasize the call to the 
ministry. We have had sporadic revivals in 
various sections, and a certain kind of ethical 
quickening that has made us more responsive to 
social problems and to the appeals of human 
suffering, but we have not had any great awaken- 
ing of the spiritual conscience of the nation such 
as would make our youth feel the divine neces- 
sity of preaching the gospel. 

The call to the ministry is born into the soul 
on the swelling tide of the spiritual experience 
of eternal things, and we have had few such 
tides sweeping over our land in the last half 
century. 



28 THE MINISTRY AS A LIFE WORK 

The young men and women of the present are 
just as earnest and sincere, just as willing to 
sacrifice for noble principles and ideals as the 
young people of the past. They will gladly 
Ignore material benefits and turn from worldly 
honors if they can be shown the real heroism of 
the ministry; the knightliness of its work; the 
worthiness of its achievements. They will gladly 
cry: **Here we are, send us into service," when 
the church experiences the spiritual awakening 
for which so many of the "elect of God" are 
hoping, praying and laboring. 

In the last analysis the solution of the prob- 
lem lies in the spiritual atmosphere of the church 
of God. The supreme duty of the church to-day 
is to secure such an atmosphere of religious 
fervor, such a consciousness of the realities of 
religious life, that it becomes natural for its 
young men to consider the work of the ministry 
as the choice occupation, the profession in which 
they may secure the greatest satisfactions and 
the largest usefulness possible to mortal man. 



Come ye after me, and I will make you fishers 
of men. — Matt, 4:19. 



CHAPTER III 

THE CALL TO THE MINISTRY 

It is inevitable that the prevailing spirit of 
our times, that is confessedly material and prac- 
tical, should influence the young men and women 
in their ideals and personal spirit, and to a cer- 
tain extent determine their choices of life occupa- 
tions. The individual spirit reacts to the larger 
class or age spirit, and it requires hardy souls, 
souls of unusual strength, to resist the prevalent 
spirit of their times. Moreover, much of the 
evil is clothed with a sweet persuasiveness that 
charms the unsuspecting and leads astray even 
the elect. 

The spirit of the times is even reflected in the 
motives that are presented to our young people 
for entering the ministry. To be effective, the 
motive for entering the ministry must be strong 
enough both to influence the decision in the begin- 
ning, and to hold the will and purpose afterward 
— to keep the soul in the day when the tempta- 

29 



30 THE MINISTRY AS A LIFE WORK 

tions of ease or pleasure are met, or hardship 
must be endured either in the minister's own per- 
son or in the persons of those in his household 
whom he should love better than his own life. 

An examination of the motives presented to 
our young people reveals the fact that for some 
little time the appeals have been based some- 
what largely on altruistic motives. We have 
been saying to our young men: '*Go into the 
ministry or some form of religious service 
because the world needs you so sorely; its heart- 
aches must be assuaged; its wounds of body and 
mind must be healed; the wrongs righted and 
the darkness driven out," or we have placed the 
emphasis upon the other aspect and said: **In 
such service you can make your life count for the 
most, you can aid best in meeting the needs of 
the race, in building up a new civilization." 

These things are true, the world does need 
builders of its moral and religious life more than 
anything else; it does need men who have caught 
the vision of service and are willing to minister 
to its necessities; it is true that no profession 
offers a wider field of usefulness than the min- 



THE MINISTRY AS A LIFE WORK 31 

istry with its manifold forms of service; but 
these are not the ultimates in the call to the min- 
istry. We need something deeper than these 
things, something upon which these motives may 
rest, if the ministry is to have its rightful appeal 
and rightful place in the thought of the church 
and the ideals of our young men. 

The simply altruistic motives lose their fresh- 
ness of appeal after a time; they fail to sustain 
the minister's courage when his wife and chil- 
dren are suffering for the common things that 
give pleasure to life; and they do not furnish 
companionship and solace for the soul in the 
loneliness of the strange land. 

The work of the minister and missionary is of 
such character, and makes such drafts upon the 
soul, that deep in the heart must be the con- 
sciousness of an overmastering call; the imperial 
power of an ^'I ought," the conviction — **Woe is 
me if I preach not the gospel." The young man 
of today may not have the wonderful vision 
such as summoned Isaiah to service; nor with 
Ezekiel hear the voice saying: '^Before thou 
camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee"; 



32 THE MINISTRY AS A LIFE WORK 

nor yet in trance-like state hear with Paul the 
message: ^'Depart, for I will send thee far hence 
to the Gentiles." Such special forms of calls are 
given to men who have special missions, but they 
do suggest the norm of conviction that must 
enter the soul. The ministry must be, not of 
man's choosing but God's calling, and the man 
who elects it must feel the burning of the mes^ 
sage In his soul. 

The man who has such a conviction will not 
be thwarted by difficulties nor turned aside by 
temptations. The divine "I must" will drive 
him on to labor and sacrifice and service. 

At first thought It may seem that to emphasize 
this aspect of the call would deplete the ranks 
of the ministry, or at least prevent some young 
men from enlisting. Of course, one man divinely 
driven into the ministry is worth more than a 
multitude who select It without this overmaster- 
ing compulsion. 

Perhaps, however, the Insistence upon this 
form of call would really direct attention to the 
ministry. Make men think, and thought will 
lead to conviction and conviction to action. 



THE MINISTRY AS A LIFE WORK 33 

This was in the mind of Jesus when he said: 
*'He that loveth father or mother more than me 
is not worthy of me; and he that loveth son or 
daughter more than me is not worthy of me. 
And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth 
after me, is not worthy of me." 

It is apparent that the key to the unrest in the 
younger ministers, and the secret reason that so 
many students lose their interest and drift away 
from their purpose of entering the ministry, may 
be found in the motives that are being pre- 
sented to them. Men will endure sacrifice and 
suffering if the motive is potent, if the objective 
seems worth while. This is true in every realm 
of life. Peary was willing to endure indescrib- 
able agony and privation for the honor of being 
the first man to reach the North Pole. Marcus 
Whitman gladly braved dangers and toils that he 
might save the Northwest Territory for his coun- 
try. The youth of America have never hesi- 
tated to offer themselves for service when they 
felt that the country needed them. The suffi- 
cient motive has never failed to evoke the suffi- 
cient response. 



34 THE MINISTRY AS A LIFE WORK 

The young men and women of the churches 
are not different from the rest of their age. 
They will not shrink from the sacrifice and hard- 
ships of the ministry if the sufficient motive of a 
worthy service to which they are divinely called 
Is presented to them. The church does not need 
to reject the motives it has been presenting, but 
to revise its points of emphasis; to visualize 
anew the things that have been growing dim in 
its thought and ideal, and to stress the divine, 
the holy nature of the call. 

Modern China stretching out its famine stricken 
arms to America, or oppressed Armenia blindly 
reaching forth her shackled hands, may become 
the '^Macedonian Vision" through which God 
speaks to the young men and women of today. 

The human cry of need may move the heart 
and become the messenger of divine impressment 
— the voice of the passing Christ calling: "Fol- 
low me, and I will make you fishers of men." 



If a man seeketh the office of a bishop, he desir- 
eth a good work. — 1 Tim, 3 :1. 

CHAPTER IV 

THE CANDIDATE FOR THE MINISTRY 

It is evident, even to the casual observer, that 
many men and women have not chosen wisely 
the occupations or professions in which they are 
engaged. What may be termed misfits are found 
in every occupation, — ^lawyers who ought to be 
farmers, merchants who should be artisans, arti- 
sans who should be captains of industry, teachers 
who ought to be anything other than what they 
are trying to be, men and women in every trade 
and profession who seem to be poorly fitted for 
efficient service in the occupation in which they are 
engaged. 

The ministry is no exception to this statement, 
for it has its misfits, men who are palpably 
unfitted to do their best in the work they are 
striving to do. 

Many times these men are choice souls with 
holy desire to serve God; but some physical de- 
fect, some deficiency in education or culture, some 

35 



36 THE MINISTRY AS A LIFE WORK 

tendency to mental aberration or astigmatism, 
handicaps them in the race for success. 

These seemingly unfit men are not always 
wholly at fault in their choice of the ministry. 
Sometimes others are blameworthy— an over- 
zealous mother, an unwise pastor, or unthinking 
friends have crowded them into the selection of 
the ministry as their life-work. 

Sometimes these men are conscious of their 
limitations, but conditions are such that they 
cannot enter some other calling or they have 
not quite the courage to acknowledge their 
mistake and begin over again the work of 
life. 

The struggles of such men are ofttimes 
pathetic as they strive to be faithful to tasks 
that are distasteful. 

It IS true that God has used some strange 
agents for the glory of his kingdom, servants 
whose adaptability for their work the world 
would have seriously questioned. We would not 
dare to interfere with the calling of men by the 
Holy Spirit, but it is not fair to our young peo- 
ple, nor to the church, to fail in frankness in 



THE MINISTRY AS A LIFE WORK 37 

advising with young men who are considering the 
ministry as a profession. 

The work of the ministry is too serious, and 
the demands upon the modern minister are too 
exacting for any young man to enter the work 
without facing squarely its exactions, limitations 
and requisites to success. 

One of the fundamental questions for the can- 
didate is the question of personal health. The 
young man should ask himself, "Am I physi- 
cally adapted to the exacting duties of the 
ministry?" 

We have often been reminded that "The body 
is not the measure of the soul," and yet as Dr. 
Behrends tells us, "Preaching is always an ath- 
letic contest, a close grappling and serious 
wrestle, and whether the result shall be conquest, 
or defeat, or a drawn battle, will depend upon 
the perfect command the preacher has of his 
thoughts and himself." 

Under the Jewish dispensation, the priest who 
served in the temple was supposed to be without 
blemish, physically. The New Testament does 
not insist upon that canon of perfection for the 



38 THE MINISTRY AS A LIFE WORK 

Christian minister, and many noble and fruitful 
workers have been handicapped in some way. 
Robert Hall, the supreme master of pulpit style 
and eloquence ; George Matheson, the blind poet 
whose pathetic hymns have voiced the yearnings 
of many hearts; Horace Bushnell, the prophet of 
a new era in theology in New England; the 
Apostle Paul himself, these, and scores of others 
like them, have wrought nobly and "worked 
righteousness" notwithstanding their physical dis- 
abilities. 

But to-day the anemic, the frail framed ascetic, 
the man of weak, nervous vitality finds himself 
under an avalanche of demands that physical 
strength will not permit him to meet. 

The minister is no longer the "quiet student 
of past days'*; he is a man of affairs, with a 
multitude of interests demanding his time and 
tapping his reservoirs of nervous energy. The 
modern minister must keep fit physically or he 
cannot meet the conditions of this strenuous age. 
Possibly the ideal of the present time is not the 
best, and its requirements may not be of the 
highest, but we face facts not theories, and are 



THE MINISTRY AS A LIFE WORK 39 

considering conditions as they must be met in this 
twentieth century. 

It would seem not to be necessary to suggest 
that men with serious imperfections in the organs 
of speech, or conspicuous and unsightly blem- 
ishes in physical appearance, should weigh care- 
fully such handicaps; but unfortunately, friends 
are not always frank, and ofttimes w^e do not 
"see ourselves as others see us." More than 
one man suffering from serious physical defects 
has spent years in preparation for the ministry 
only to awaken to the bitter consciousness that 
some one was not frank and friendly and chris- 
tian in advising him. 

The second canon that should be observed 
concerns the intellectual power; the minister 
should not be, mentally, either indolent or 
erratic. 

The drudgery of the study is irksome to many 
men, especially to men of brilliant parts v/ho 
have a gift for language. As the result, words 
take the place of ideas, and nicely turned phrases 
the place of golden nuggets of truth. It was 
jokingly said of one brilliant man that "he was 



40 THE MINISTRY AS A LIFE WORK 

so indolent that he had not conceived a new idea 
since he left the seminary." 

But genius is not the substitute for labor. 
Only the sweat of the brain will keep the mind 
fresh and furnish a message for the world. God 
inspires men to preach, but he inspires them 
through their toils. The great minister must 
be a great worker or his greatness soon departs. 

But neither genius nor labor are substitutes 
for mental poise — for the power to hold in right 
relationships the principles, the truths, and the 
ideals of revelation. 

It is undeniable that God has sometimes used 
men of erratic tendencies for the good of the 
race, but, from the Apostolic days to the pres- 
ent hour, the Church of Christ has suffered from 
the unbalanced mentality of leaders who have 
over-emphasized particular phases of truth and 
doctrine. 

The history of the church may be written from 
the story of its struggles with these honest but 
mentally 'astigmatised followers. The Apostle 
Paul, who had suffered acutely from these per- 
verted thinkers, was thinking of these things 



THE MINISTRY AS A LIFE WORK 41 

when he wrote to Timothy: **God hath not given 
us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, 
and of a sound mind. Hold fast the form of 
sound words, which thou hast heard of me, in 
faith and love which is in Christ Jesus." 

This soundness of mind, this sanity and poise 
of mental life is a gift to be both coveted and 
courted by all, and especially by the minister. 
Situations are arising continually, both in per- 
sonal life and public relationships, that require 
clear thinking and sound judgment on the part 
of the minister. The present world crisis stresses 
this requirement. It is so easy to permit the 
passions and prejudices engendered by the world 
war to influence the judgment or lead to the mis- 
reading of the providence of God in his dealing 
with the nation; or to confuse the desires of our 
hearts with the clear utterances of revelation. 
Sanity in thought, balance in judgment, sound- 
ness of mind has been one of the needs of the 
ministry in all ages, and it is especially needed 
in this hour when the world is in chaos, and so 
many of the nations seem to be passing through 
the Garden of Sorrows. Everywhere prophets 



42 THE MINISTRY AS A LIFE WORK 

are proclaiming their ability to lead the world 
out of its darkness. The world sadly needs 
clear heads, and reasoned faith in its leaders. 

Is it unfair for the Church to require such san- 
ity and w^holesome mentality of the men whom 
it calls into service as teachers and leaders? 
When so much importance attaches to this char- 
acteristic, when the peace and success of the 
church is determined by it, and the happiness and 
usefulness of the worker is dependent upon it, 
reason demands that the church examine care- 
fully the intellectual fitness of those who apply 
for induction into its official leadership. 

The ministry was not established to give cre- 
dentials to every man who thinks himself called 
to deliver a message, but to supply for the 
church a leadership sound minded, godly lived 
and "thoroughly furnished unto all good 
works.'* 

The third canon to be observed pertains to 
the spiritual life — the susceptibility to spiritual 
forces, the aptitudes of the soul. As the artist 
is supposed to have some sense of form and 
color, and the poet an ear for words and 



THE MINISTRY AS A LIFE WORK 43 

rhythm, so the minister is presumed to possess a 
spirit that reacts to spiritual impulses and ideals. 
And this presumption is justified, even though in 
some particular cases it may not seem to be 
founded on facts. 

The minister has become a man of all work — 
a business manager, a social organizer, a director 
of benevolent activities, a functionary of diverse 
and many times unrelated causes, but these 
things are not vital to his work. They are inter- 
esting and valuable, but they are the accidents 
of his occupation, the parasites that attach 
themselves to his office through the conditions 
of the times. 

His one supreme business is to minister to the 
spiritual life of the race, to keep the soul of man 
''on top"; and all other things must be subjected 
to this objective. 

But he can do this only as his own soul main- 
tains its supremacy over the temporal and ma- 
terial. He must think in the realm of the spirit, 
speak the language of the spirit, and act In har- 
mony with spiritual motives and Ideals. This 
means In the last analysis to make spirituality as 



44 THE MINISTRY AS A LIFE WORK 

much as possible ''a fixed mental and moral 
habit." 

Of course this is a difficult task, and such an 
attitude of mind and heart can be attained and 
maintained only through patient cultivation and 
experimentation. The initial impulse comes 
through the action of the Holy Spirit upon the 
heart, but the continuance of that impulse, the 
changing of the impulse to a habit, depends 
largely upon the man himself. It is for him to 
spiritualize his thinking, feeling, and acting until 
such condition becomes the norm of his life and 
he "walks in the Spirit." 

This is the reason back of PauFs words to the 
Philippians: 'Whatsoever things are true, what- 
soever things are honorable, whatsoever things 
are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever 
things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good 
report: if there be any virtue, and if there be any 
praise think on these things." Spiritual powers 
and attainments are achieved only through care- 
ful attention to the things through which God 
reveals himself to us, and devotion to the realm 
of the spirit. 



THE MINISTRY AS A LIFE WORK 45 

But no man will give habitual attention to the 
media of fellowship with the Eternal, and cer- 
tainly he will find no joy in such attention, if he 
has not a certain aptitude for spiritual things, a 
receptivity to spiritual truth and ideals. 

All men possess a little of this aptitude, but 
the minister must possess it in large measure, or 
the formulas of the church become dry and 
meaningless; the tasks of the ministry, so often 
small in themselves, become drudgery; and the 
hopes of Christian faith lose their power to in- 
spire and compel zeal and devotion. 

God may use, sometimes, an unspiritual man 
to bring spiritual things to pass, but that is not 
his usual way of working. God follows the gen- 
eral law of his universe. Like begets like. 
Every seed after its kind. This is the law of 
the spiritual world just as truly as it is the law 
of the physical life. 

Young men looking forward to the ministry, 
and those seeking to influence our youth for this 
profession, might well ponder this canon of spir- 
ituality. It may serve as the determining factor 
in influencing the choice, and either save the 



46 THE MINISTRY AS A LIFE WORK 

life from disappointment or lead to joyous 
service. 

God wants his people to be happy and to find 
satisfaction in the tasks of life. Only the joyous 
worker attains the highest usefulness, and the 
joyous worker is the man whose free spirit and 
service moves along the line of God given apti- 
tudes and powers. 

Dr. Elijah Brown of Ram's Horn fame put 
the matter in Ram's Horn style when he said : 

'^Unless a man's born with preach in him I 
don't believe he can ever get it there. I hold 
these truths to be self-evident. That God settles 
some things for eternity before the foundations 
of the world were laid, and one of them is that 
a man with no music in his soul can never be- 
come a Paderewski, and another is that the 
preacher must be born with his preach in him or 
no theological institution can ever put it there." 

It must ever be true that preachers are born 
of God, and not made by man. God must en- 
dow them with the powers and capacities of 
body, mind, and soul that destines them for his 
special service. Man's task is to discover these 



THE MINISTRY AS A LIFE WORK 47 

potential personalities, aid them to find them- 
selves, and then encourage and direct them in 
training for the service to which they are 
called. 



Refuse profane and old wives fables. And exer- 
cise thyself unto godliness. Neglect not the good 
gift that is in thee. — 1 Tim, 4:7, 14. 



CRAPTER V 

THE TRAINING OF THE MINISTRY 

John Harvard endowed Harvard University, 
the first college in America, because he feared 
that *'an illiterate ministry to the churches might 
arise when our present ministers shall lie in the 
dust." That fear has been in the minds of the 
leaders of the church for generations and out 
of it has come many of those self-sacrificing gifts 
that established most of our academies and col- 
leges and all of our seminaries. 

Unfortunately, all members of the churches 
have not seen with the clear-eyed vision of these 
founders of our schools^ Many of the fathers 
believed that if God called a man to preach it 
was his duty to preach, irrespective of training 
or educational equipment. In fact some of them 
thought that education was a hindrance, that it 
fettered the free movement of the Spirit. Prac- 
tically applied, this sentiment resulted In forcing 

48 



THE MINISTRY AS A LIFE WORK 49 

into the ministry many ignorant and uncouth 
men, men whose ignorance was so palpable and 
whose messages and manners were so grotesque 
that their audiences were repelled rather than 
attracted. 

God has used most marvellously some men 
who have not been trained in the schools. We 
have abundant reason to venerate such names 
as John Bunyan, Andrew Fuller and Dwight L. 
Moody — men who by their piety, energy, com- 
mon sense and eloquence, have wrought splen- 
didly for the truth. But the usefulness of these 
remarkable men does not argue against the need of 
other men obtaining a thorough scholastic prepara- 
tion. Such men succeeded in spite of their handi- 
caps of poor preparation, not because of them. 

We must also recognize the fact that the pro- 
portion of such leadership has been small, and 
the strength of the church has been conserved 
and increased largely by the trained leadership 
of such educated men as- Paul and Augustine, 
Chrysostom and John Wickliffe, John Huss and 
Calvin, Edwards, and Beecher and Brooks and 
Broadus. 



50 THE MINISTRY AS A LIFE WORK 

Even the Apostolic Band, so often referred to 
as consisting of "unlearned and ignorant men," 
was highly trained, for its members had three 
years of training under the greatest teacher the 
world has ever seen. And after that marvelous 
intellectual and spiritual privilege, they were not 
permitted to enter on their work until they had 
received the special gift of the Holy Spirit. 

The desirability of thorough training for the 
men who enter the ministry hardly seems debat- 
able, and yet, the decline in the number of stu- 
dents in the standard seminaries, the multiplica- 
tion of training schools offering short cut courses, 
and the large numbers of unschooled men pre- 
senting themselves for ordination have forced the 
question to the front. 

Is it wise or necessary to train thoroughly can- 
didates for the ministry? Must the young man 
undergo a long period of discipline and study? 
Will not the God who calls him give him the 
understanding and the power to deliver the 
message? 

The temptation to make it easy for the young 
men to enter the work is evident. Some high 



THE MINISTRY AS A LIFE WORK 51 

class institutions have felt the pull of this senti- 
ment and lowered their requirements or estab- 
lished departments that meet the needs of students 
without classical culture. 

The men themselves naturally desire to enter 
upon their careers as soon as possible, and minis- 
terial students are not all immune to the germ of 
indolence. 

The average ministerial student is earnest and 
devoted, but the short course, the easy course, has 
many attractions, as is evidenced by the numbers 
pursuing their studies at short course institutions 
or selecting easy subjects in those institutions 
where they have large opportunities for elective 
topics. The elective system has done much to 
emancipate the individual, to develop genius and 
talent, and to give color and interest to modern 
education, but it has its weaknesses, and its privi- 
leges are often abused. Shortcomings in educa- 
tional equipment may be overcome by diligence, 
but they take heavy toll from the minister's nerve 
power. 

Greek and Hebrew may not be necessary from 
our modern viewpoint, but it does seem fitting 



52 THE MINISTRY AS A LIFE WORK 

that the man who is to deliver the message of the 
gospel should have at least a working knowledge 
of the wonderful language in which that gospel 
was given to the world. The man unacquainted 
with Greek is shut out from the beauties and spir- 
itual suggestions conveyed only through that 
matchless language. Such a man can never be an 
independent investigator of the truth, for he must 
ever be subservient to the judgment and scholar- 
ship of other men. 

Moreover, the minister needs the intellectual 
training that come from stiff courses of study, 
especially in the realm of language. He needs 
an education that will give a certain hardness to 
his intellectual and moral fibre; a power to face 
hard questions, to think them through to satisfy- 
ing conclusions both for himself and the cultured 
men and women of his congregation. 

Other professions are steadily increasing their 
educational demands upon their members, and the 
ministry cannot afford to fall behind in the char- 
acter and equipment of its members. 

Remembering the exacting conditions of our 
times, the many problems that demand wide 



THE MINISTRY AS A LIFE WORK 53 

observation, breadth of knowledge and culture, 
and clear, accurate thinking; remembering the 
increase of general education whereby college- 
bred men and women are found in every congre- 
gation; remembering the glorious greatness of the 
gospel message, we can hardly over-emphasize 
the need of adequate preparation for the men 
who are to become ^'stewards of the word of 
God." 

It Is mianifest that no man with a just concep- 
tion of the ministerial office would desire to take 
upon himself the responsibilities and privileges of 
the profession without obtaining the best training 
possible for him under the circumstances of his 
lot. The work is too vital, too holy, too far- 
reaching in Its effects, too Christ-like, for any 
human being to enter Into it thoughtlessly or to 
give to It anything less than the best of himself, 
the highest powers of his body, mind, and spirit. 

The Ideal preparation is undoubtedly a full 
college and seminary course. Including at least one 
of the languages In which the scriptures were 
written. 

Some years ago In discussing the *TreparatIon 



54 THE MINISTRY AS A LIFE WORK 

for the Ministry/' President Alvah Hovey of 
Newton Theological Institution affirmed: "Those 
who have thoroughly studied the Word of God 
and the history of his people ; who have exercised 
their mental faculties and learned how to lead 
other minds by a straight line into the very center 
and heart of religious truth; who have endured 
the rigors of an intellectual and moral probation 
before taking the full responsibility of 'stewards 
of the mysteries of God' ; those, in a word, who, 
at the Master's call, have deliberately prepared 
themselves in young manhood for the holy office 
of the Christian ministry, and have then gone 
forth to spend the best of their days in that serv- 
ice, — have labored with a success in proportion 
to their fitness to do the work of their calling, 
and have achieved results more desirable and 
permanent than have others of equal native abil- 
ity and equal devotion to the cause.'* 

This statement has been confirmed recently in 
a remarkable way by the investigations of the 
Committee on Denominational S<:hools appointed 
by the Northern Baptist Convention. The report 
of that committee shows that "combining all the 



THE MINISTRY AS A LIFE WORK 55 

records obtained (405), the graduates of 1901- 
1905 and of 1911-1915 (two groups whose effi- 
ciency was investigated covering the period 1916- 
1920), and comparing this record with that of 
the 675 not seminary-trained men in the states 
adjacent to the seminaries, for that same period, 
1916-1920, it was found that seminary-trained 
men led their churches to give for denominational 
benevolences an average of over four and one- 
half times as much money, secured two and one- 
half times as many baptisms, and twice as many 
accessions by letter and Christian experience. 
These figures include among men not seminary- 
trained, many of college and partial seminary 
training. Incomplete as these returns are, they 
are dependable and strongly argue for full semi- 
nary preparation." 

The charge has been made recently that the cur- 
ricula of the seminaries is archaic, that it bears 
no relation to modern life, that it emphasizes dead 
languages to the exclusion of living subjects, that 
it does not prepare men to meet the conditions 
that prevail in the world in which they live. 
As a rule, such charges arise out of ignorance 



56 THE MINISTRY AS A LIFE WORK 

concerning modern ministerial training. Prac- 
tically all of the seminaries give wide latitude in 
the matter of selective courses, and many of them 
have working agreements with universities where- 
by the courses of the university become available 
for the seminary student. Twenty years ago most 
of the institutions were under the old system that 
recognized five general departments: Old Testa- 
ment, New Testament, Theology, Church His- 
tory, and Homiletics. The school of to-day has 
these departments, but it also has either other 
departments or includes under the old classifica- 
tion subjects that were undreamed of a generation 
since. One well known institution offers such 
courses as "The Theology of the Poets," "Ro- 
manism and Modernism," "The Church and 
Labor," "The Rural Church and the Commu- 
nity," "The Family and Child Welfare," "The 
Church and Internationalism," "Church Music," 
"The Principles of Education," "The Theory of 
Education." 

Certainly nothing could be more modern or 
practical than such courses in sociology and relig- 
ious education. 



THE MINISTRY AS A LIFE WORK 57 

Moreover, the ability of the schools to develop 
effective workers seems to be augmenting. The 
report of the Committee already referred to has 
this significant statement: "The graduates of 
1911-1915 led their churches during the period 
19 1 6-1920 to give more to denominational benev- 
olence and secured as many baptisms, and more 
other accessions to the churches by letter and 
experience for the same period, 19 16-1920, than 
seminary graduates ten years earlier. This fact 
reveals increasing and not decreasing seminary 
efficiency." 

It is inevitable that some worthy men will not 
be able to pursue full college and seminary 
courses. They may be called to the ministry too 
late in life, or when called they may have already 
assumed the responsibilities of family support. 
But even these men should aim for the best equip- 
ment possible, and for them the training school 
or special courses at the standard institution are 
available. 

Some denominational bodies are beginning to 
legislate concerning the training of the ministry, 
and wisely establishing standards of education as 



58 THE MINISTRY AS A LIFE WORK 

prerequisite to ordination. Such legislation is not 
for the purpose of keeping men out of the minis- 
try, but to encourage and inspire men to enter it; 
to set ideals for candidates to surpass; to estab- 
lish standards that will cause the world to respect 
and honor the profession; to raise the leadership 
of the church to the level where its primacy will 
be universally recognized; and above all, to in- 
crease its efBciency that the high purpose of the 
Great Head of the Church may be quickly 
achieved. 

The proposal to raise standards of require- 
ments, and to demand long periods of educational 
preparation becomes exceedingly serious in view 
of the steadily mounting cost of education and the 
fact that the ministry is recruited largely from 
families of limited financial resources. 

If present economic conditions continue very 
long, or there should be any marked increase in 
the number of students, it is evident that minis- 
terial education societies and institutions engaged 
in training the clergy would need to enlarge their 
resources available for scholarship aid. 

Some excellent men criticise this policy of giv- 



THE MINISTRY AS A LIFE WORK 59 

ing special financial aid to ministerial students, 
and contend that they should be treated exactly as 
other professional students. It should be remem- 
bered, however, that the church calls such men to 
a special and technical form of service; a service 
of life-long self-sacrifice in its behalf; and a serv- 
ice in which they cannot hope to obtain, no matter 
how diligent or faithful or brilliant, the material 
rewards that come to the lawyer or physician or 
engineer. Moreover, if these students should 
borrow funds to obtain this training, the meagre 
stipends of the average church would not permit 
them to pay their debts. 

Nobody considers the boys attending public 
school or the young men in college as subjects of 
charity, and yet none of them make adequate 
financial return for the benefits received. The 
public contributes to their support and training 
for citizenship, and expects its payment in later 
life values. And no more is it charity for the 
young men preparing for the ministry to receive 
aid. The church contributes to their training, but 
it expects the laboratory of the schools to add 
elements of value to their lives. The church an- 



60 THE MINISTRY AS A LIFE WORK 

ticlpates heavy interest returns from its invest- 
ment. 

It is not for the best interests of either the min- 
istry or the church to maintain such conditions 
that the chosen leaders of God's holy work should 
enter upon their careers harassed with visions of 
debts that they cannot pay, or with lowered nerv- 
ous vitality consequent upon overstrain in sup- 
porting themselves, entirely, during the period of 
education. 

Ministers are the officers of the church army. 
As the nation deems it wise to support and direct 
the training of the officers of its army and navy, 
so the church of Christ calling its young men and 
women to its special service, and establishing for 
them high standards of discipline and culture, can 
do no less than aid them in meeting its require- 
ments* 



Go ye therefore, and make disciples of all the 
nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father 
and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit: teaching 
them to observe all things whatsoever I commanded 
you,— MatU 28:19-20. 



CHAPTER VI 

THE OPPORTUNITY OF THE MINISTRY 

From the business standpoint, the church is 
probably the greatest industry ever developed by 
mortal man. There is more capital invested in it, 
more workers engaged in advancing its Interests, 
and its concerns are more widespread than any 
other enterprise that men have undertaken. Its 
achievements have been so numerous and varied 
that we are confronted everywhere by its benefits ; 
and the unprejudiced observer soon comes to feel 
that practically everything essential to happiness 
in modern civilzation owes its debt to the church 
of Christ. 

This great, going business, unctioning in so 
many ways, In so many parts of the world, began 
in weakness nineteen hundred years ago, and has 
come to its present status only through self-sacri- 
ficing service upon the part of Its adherents. The 

61 



62 THE MINISTRY AS A LIFE WORK 

church has been conceived of, sometimes, as a field 
for service, but it is rather a force for service, an 
army marshaled to succor a world in need. 

As the leaders of this force, the ministers have 
always borne burdens, assumed grave responsibil- 
ities, and challenged opportunities. But no gen- 
eration of the past has offered so many open 
doors to the consecrated clergyman, or so sorely 
needed his ministration as the present age. 

The old opportunities for the demonstration of 
the power of ministerial leadership are still with 
us. The rural communities with their decaying 
churches; the city with its crowding populations; 
the immigrant with his strange tongue and alien 
ideal ; the child problem ; and the labor problem ; 
and the divorce problem ; and a dozen other such 
questions of long standing still send out their 
ringing challenge to the church and its leaders. 

But the world has been passing through a 
strange and terrible experience these last few 
years; the fountains of life have been broken up, 
the bulwarks of society have been overthrown, 
and cruelty and lust and hate have overwhelmed 
great masses of the race. The world has been 



THE MINISTRY AS A LIFE WORK 63 

surprised in its self-confidence, foolish pride, and 
undue elation over its progress in material things. 
The world boasted of its conquests and culture, 
and in that very moment, the leaders of its intel- 
lectual life, the organizers of its industry, the 
captains of its scientific adventures were seized 
with madness, and plunged it into a maelstrom of 
hate and destruction. Out of the terrors of the 
world war the nations have emerged with minds 
bewildered by conflict, hearts torn with anguish, 
and hands blindly reaching forth after guidance. 
New tasks face the minister, for he must be the 
interpreter of these experiences to men. As ex- 
President Wilson said in one of his great ad- 
dresses, *'The business of the Christian church, of 
the Christian minister, is to show the spiritual 
relations of men to the great world process, 
whether they be physical or spiritual. It is 
nothing less than to show the plan of life and 
mean's relation to that plan." 

In this interpretation of the plan of the ages 
and the mediation between the world and its 
bewilderments, between men and their woes, the 
minister has a veritable sea of sorrows to assuage. 



64 THE MINISTRY AS A LIFE WORK 

America has not really tasted the bitter cup that 
has been pressed to the lips of the nations. Her 
territory has not been ravaged, her homes have 
not been destroyed, her sons and daughters have 
not been slain till the wombs of the mothers could 
not supply the demand for sacrifices. Europe, 
however, knows all the bitterness of these sorrows 
as she contemplates her childless homes, her count- 
less crosses on Flander's Fields, and her hosts of 
maimed and blind and sick. At the meeting of 
the National Federation of Churches In Boston in 
the autumn of 1920 the Secretary of the Feder- 
ation stated that ^'if the dead of France could be 
marshaled twenty abreast It would take them 
eleven days, marching day and night, to pass a 
given point; If to the dead of France could be 
added the dead of the other nations. It would 
require three months to pass; If to this mighty 
procession could be added the maimed and blind 
and those incapacitated for life's work, the 
line would be marching from now (from the 
time of the meeting) till the roses bloom in the 
spring." 

The world Is Indeed treading the winepress of 



THE MINISTRY AS A LIFE WORK 65 

sorrow and its only hope, the only light that shines 
in its dark night, is the light that streams from 
the face of the '*Man of Sorrows," the "Divine 
Son." 

But the v/orld needs far more than this assuage- 
ment of its griefs. There must be a moral and 
spiritual reconstruction of both the foundations 
and the structure of human society. 

The world war as fought by America and her 
allies was entered into with splendid idealism; 
but warfare is always subversive to high moral 
and religious ideals. Inevitably the safeguards of 
society have been broken down, and established 
conventionalities overthrown. Multitudes seem 
to have lost their convictions of honor, and cher- 
ished principles have been violated without com- 
punction. The world has gone mad over the 
things of physical sense, and does not hesitate to 
adopt any means in order to obtain its satisfac- 
tions. Human life is held cheaply, and lawless- 
ness IS continually bursting through the crusts of 
well-ordered life. 

The only hope of the world is to rebuild its 
life by recalling men to the consciousness of the 



66 THE MINISTRY AS A LIFE WORK 

reality of the spiritual; by convincing them that 
men do not live by bread alone ; by moralizing the 
material forces that are subject to man. 

It is strangely significant, perhaps we should 
say providential, that at this time we are celebrat- 
ing the three-hundredth anniversary of the settle- 
ment of the Pilgrims at Plymouth. 

Bradford and Brewster and their fellow-work- 
ers were few in number, but they were mighty in 
spirit, and upon their high idealism and lofty 
principles our nation has builded its structure of 
a free government freely supported, by a liberty- 
loving and religious-minded people. We should 
strive to-day for a rebirth of the Pilgrim ideal, 
not only in America, but in the nations of the 
earth. 

Perhaps the element of that ideal most needed 
in the present hour is its religious reverence and 
spirit. 

President Harding said in a recent address in 
iWashington : 

"In spite of our complete divorcement of 
Church and State, quite in harmony with our 
religious freedom, there is an important relation- 



THE MINISTRY AS A LIFE WORK 67 

ship betwe^en Church and Nation, because no 
nation can prosper, no nation can survive if it 
ever forgets Almighty God. I have believed that 
religious reverence has played a very influential 
and helpful part in the matchless American 
achievement, and I wish it ever to abide. If I 
were to utter a prayer for the republic tonight, it 
would be to reconsecrate us in religious devotion 
and make us abidingly a God-fearing, God-loving 
people." 

Viewing conditions from the business stand- 
point, Mr. Babson asserts : "The need of the hour 
is more religion. More religion is needed every- 
where, from the halls of Congress at Washington 
to the factories, the mines, the fields and the 
forests. It is one thing to talk about plans or 
policies, but a plan or policy without a religious 
motive is like a watch without a spring or a body 
without the breath of life. The security of our 
investments is absolutely dependent upon faith, 
the righteousness and the religion of our people. 
I have stated that the real strength of our invest- 
ments Is due, not to the distinguished bankers of 
America, but rather to the poor preachers. I now 



68 THE MINISTRY AS A LIFE WORK 

go farther than that and say that the development 
of the country as a whole is due to this something, 
this indescribable something, this combination of 
faith, thrift, industry, initiative, integrity and 
vision, which these preachers have developed in 
their communities." 

Both statesman and keen-minded statistician 
have analyzed the situation with exactness and 
simplicity. The only corrective for the chaos, 
restlessness and laxity of the present is more 
religion. It is the task and privilege of the min- 
ister in this hour of the world's great need to cast 
into the whirlpool of its life the steadying 
element, the message of our religious faith. He 
is in a peculiar manner the representative of the 
moral and spiritual forces of the nation, the 
regenerative powers of society, and upon him 
depends to a large extent the restoration of the 
world to sanity and healthful ideals. 

But the reconstruction of the old pillars is not 
the only need of the world. It is asking and 
expecting the creation of new temples for its life 
and faith. 

The great developments of the past century 



THE MINISTRY AS A LIFE WORK 69 

have been along material lines. The resources of 
nature have been exploited, and man's conquests 
of natural forces have surpassed the wildest 
dreams of the ancients. Disciples of Neitsche are 
now asserting that the cycle of progress has been 
completed and that the race is entering the path 
that leads downward. 

Competent observers, who have no sympathy 
with such decadent philosophy, are also beginning 
to question concerning the future, and expressing 
doubts that man can progress much further along 
material lines. 

Whatever the future may contain for the race, 
materially, it is evident that just now we need a 
vast increment to the moral and spiritual resources 
of mankind. For several generations the moral 
and spiritual development of the world has not 
kept pace with its material advances. The prob- 
lem is to develop spiritual powers adequate to 
control and direct these gigantic forces that have 
been called into action by the discoveries of 
science and the unfolding of nature's storehouses. 

This is undoubtedly the minister's problem, and 
there are indications that we are entering upon 



70 THE IVIINISTRY AS A LIFE WORK 

the pathway that leads to its solution. The world 
is growing heartsick and weary. It is awakening 
to its need of God. It is becoming conscious of 
its sorrows, conscious of its broken idols of human 
culture and achievements, conscious of its own 
helplessness. Voices in the wilderness are begin- 
ning to cry out, "Give us back our God,'' ''Lead 
us into the presence of the Holy One," "Show us 
the fountain of living waters." 

These voices in the night, that reveal the blind 
gropings of the race, are heard not only in Amer- 
ica and Europe, but also in other continents, 
continents that we call pagan. 

The groanings of the race, the birth pangs of 
new ideals and civilizations, are heard in China 
and Japan, in India and Arabia, in Africa and 
the Islands of the Sea. Everywhere a new day 
seems to be dawning on the race. Shall it be a 
day dark with the clouds of doubt and prejudice 
and rivalry and hate, or a day bright and glorious 
because the "sun of righteousness" arises "with 
healing in its wings." The Christian forces of 
America, under the leadership of the ministry 
will practically determine the character of this 



THE MINISTRY AS A LIFE WORK 71 

new age. America of all the nations has the men 
and the means, the reserves that are able to con- 
trol conditions. 

The signs of the times point to a glorious day- 
break, the ushering in of a new era of spiritual 
progress. The surprising development of the 
nineteenth century along material lines will be 
matched in the twentieth by the nobler conquests 
of the spirit when the visions of prophets and the 
dreams of poets shall have their fruition. 

The golden age of the minister from the stand- 
point of opportunity is in the present generation. 
He is the key man to the world's future, for he 
must unlock the treasure house of the spirit. In 
his hands are the issues of life for the race. 
Never before has he had such opportunities to 
lay foundations of faith; to build temples of wor- 
ship in the souls of men; to mediate between the 
human spirit and the eternal God; to re-discover 
to the consciousness of the race the eternal verities 
of the Christian religion. 

Like his Master of old, the minister can feel 
the rising power of his divine mission and exclaim: 
"He has annointed me to preach good tidings to 



72 THE MINISTRY AS A LIFE WORK 

the poor; he has sent me to proclaim release to 
the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind. 
To set at liberty them that are bruised. To 
proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.'* 



Wherefore my brethren beloved and longed for, 
my joy and crown, so stand fast in the Lord. — 
Phil 4:1. 



CHAPTER VII 

THE ATTRACTIONS OF THE MINISTRY 

There are some obvious attractions to the min- 
istry, such as the desirable social position accorded 
the minister, the opportunities it presents for ease 
and culture, and the command of one's time that 
it affords. These things do not, however, appeal 
to any large number of worthy young men. 

A somewhat larger company of candidates are 
attracted by the approbation of society that the 
minister is supposed to receive, or by the leader- 
ship that is accorded him in certain walks of life, 
or by the prevalent altruistic emphasis and its 
invocation of the romantic emotions of our young 
people. 

Fundamentally, the attractive appeals to enter 
upon the work of the minister and to persevere 
in its labors, range themselves under three gen- 
eral heads — the attraction of a great call, the. 



73 



74 THE MINISTRY AS A LIFE WORK 

attraction of a great work, and the attraction of 
a great fellowship. 

The attractive power of the ideal call to the 
ministry can hardly be overestimated. The true 
minister is born a minister just as the musician 
is born a musician or the artist is born an artist. 
But the imperatives that bid the minister express 
his personality by becoming a minister are unlike 
those that exercise dominion over the genius of 
the sculptor or the painter or the musician. To 
the instinctive leading of those forces that exercise 
empire over the spirit is added the summons of 
a great and glorious God bidding the soul 
acknowledge his reign and assume his livery of 
service. 

Somehow in that call there is an authority, a 
something never seen on land or sea, that grips 
the soul, and from which it can never quite 
escape. 

The attraction of the call is, however, matched 
by the attraction of the work. The work of the 
minister may be defined in many ways, depending 
somewhat upon the mental attitude and spiritual 
experience of the definer. 



THE MINISTRY AS A LIFE WORK 75 

Sometimes men look at the work from the 
standpoint of a narrow ecclesiasticism, and it is 
conceived, as the gathering of a congregation and 
aligning it with some particular denominational 
group, or the building of a church edifice, or the 
preaching of a few sermons and administration 
of the sacraments, or the management of worthy- 
charities. Sometimes the vocation is described in 
terms of social service, such as *^the creation of a 
new social order," ''the establishment of universal 
brotherhood," or "the building of a new civil- 
ization." 

All of these worthy objectives are involved in 
the clergy's affairs, but it is possible to have a 
deeper and richer conception of his mission. 
From God's point of view — the minister is his 
representative among men, the heralder of his 
message of grace and love. As Jesus was the 
"Word," the expression of the Father's heart and 
mind, so in some marvelous way the minister is 
the "word" of his Master, the Christ, manifesting 
the divine thought and purpose. Paul suggested 
this idea when he wrote of himself to the Phil- 
lippians, "To me to live is Christ." Earlier In 



76 THE MINISTRY AS A LIFE WORK 

his career he expressed the same thought to the 
Galatians, *'I hve; yet not I, but Christ liveth in 
me." For the minister to live among men is for 
Christ in him and through him to live among men, 
and the message of the true minister is the mes- 
sage of God. He may sometimes speak without 
authority, just as the Apostle Paul sometimes 
spoke without divine Inspiration, but he Is ever 
facing the fact that he Is a "consecrated man," 
set apart for holy service as the messenger of the 
Most High. 

From the standpoint of man, the minister's 
mission Is to save a lost and ruined world, to drive 
out darkness and sin, and to usher In the light 
and holiness of the kingdom of God. He must 
aid man to discover God, to enter Into the spir- 
itual kingdom. He must grip their souls with 
the Imperatives of divine love and righteousness, 
until, yielding to his persuasion, they enter the 
aristocracy of faith, and Jesus Christ becomes the 
arbiter of life. 

Of course this is a tremendous and perplexing 
task, and seemingly Impossible of accomplishment. 
The minister could not fulfill this two-fold mis- 



THE MINISTRY AS A LIFE WORK 77 

sion If he were dependent simply upon his own 
initiative and personality. 

But In the very difficulty of his mission there 
Is an element of satisfaction and an added attrac- 
tion to his vocation. Men like big jobs. There 
is no real pleasure in doing the easy thing. The 
athlete finds relish in his contest only as he faces 
an opponent worthy of his powers. Men, virile 
men, like Theodore Roosevelt, find their highest 
enjoyment In doing the hard thing, and the harder, 
the more taxing the struggle, the greater the joy, 
both In contest and victory. 

And that joy, the joy of the strenuous, the joy 
of burden bearing, of carrying forward mighty 
enterprises, belongs to the minister by reason of 
the nature of his mission. 

Moreover, marvelous as It seems, the minister's 
objective Is not altogether In the realm of the 
impossible. The word ''impossible" ought never 
to have been coined. There Is no such thing as 
an impossibility. What we call "impossible" to- 
day may be the commonplace of to-morrow. A 
generation since, the world said It was Impossible 
for men to converse with their fellow-men across 



78 THE MINISTRY AS A LIFE WORK 

this continent, or to fly ten thousand feet in the 
air in machines heavier than air, or to cross the 
Atlantic in a submarine. Such things were con- 
sidered the wild fancies of the romancer. And 
yet these things, and even more marvelous things, 
are the everyday happenings of the present. 

In the spiritual realm Jesus ruled out the idea 
of the ^'impossible" when he said: **With God all 
things are possible." And the church has been 
making through the centuries the seeming "im- 
possible" the rule of its achievements. What a 
wild dream for that little band of enthusiasts to 
attempt to break through the crusts of life in the 
Roman world and enthrone the religion of the 
Nazarene! What effrontery of faith for that 
insignificant Baptist Church Association at Kit- 
tery, England, to resolve that the "time had 
arrived to attempt to give the gospel to the pagan 
world"! 

It may seem to the world an impossibility for 
the minister to overthrow the walls of modern 
Jerichos, and to build New Jerusalems of right- 
eousness ; to accomplish the mighty objectives that 
the race and the Word of God sets for him ; but 



THE MINISTRY AS A LIFE WORK 79 

the regnancy of faith still abides, and the hard 
thing becomes the joyous venture of his soul. 

The attractions of the call and the work of 
the ministry are enhanced by the attractions of 
its fellowships. Men can be faithful to princi- 
ples and ideals even in loneliness and isolation. 
Many noble saints have wasted in dungeons, and 
multitudes have given their bodies to be burned, 
out of loyalty to conscience and religious senti- 
ment. 

But even for the strongest and most independ- 
ent there is something uplifting In the fellow- 
ships of life. One of the abiding charms of the 
ministry is its *'sweet and noble fellowships." 
This fellowship is not simply of the minister's 
own generation. As a spiritual relationship it 
reaches back through the ages, linking the present- 
day minister with the choice souls that have 
labored and wrought In faith. 

The writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews sum- 
moned the men of his generation to courage and 
consecration by picturing their spiritual fellowship 
with the fathers who had wrought under the old 
dispensation, and above all, by the consciousness 



80 THE MINISTRY AS A LIFE WORK 

that they were In the same line with the **author 
and perfector of our faith." The same spiritual 
alliance is the inheritance of the minister to-day, 
and it is a glorious company of prophets and 
apostles and holy men of which the minister is a 
member. Paul, the matchless; Chrysostom, the 
golden-mouthed; Athanasius, the defender of the 
faith; Hubmaier, the protestant; Wickliffe, the 
morning star of the reformation; John Robinson, 
the separatist; Carey, the inspirer of modern 
missions; Gordon, the mystic; Lorimer, the plat- 
form prince; and a host of others whose names 
stand for piety, principle, and Christly service, 
are in the mighty "cloud of witnesses," this spir- 
itual ancestry. The minister of to-day is one with 
these, in the temper of his life, the motives of 
his soul, the objectives of his labor, and the ends 
of his destiny. The memory of that fellowship 
thrills his heart, lightens his burdens and encour- 
ages his soul in the dark hour when the candle of 
hope burns dimly. He is of that company of the 
immortals of whom the Scripture asserts the 
*Vorld was not worthy." 

The minister may have his heavy burdens, his 



THE MINISTRY AS A LIFE WORK 81 

almost overpowering tasks, but as in the audacity 
and confidence of faith he attempts to fulfill his 
commission, he hears the voice of his Captain, — 
*Xo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of 
the age." 



Well done, good and faithful servant: thou hast 
been faithful over a few things, I will set thee over 
many things; enter thou into the joy of thy lord. — 
Matt, 25:21. 



CHAPTER VIII 

THE REWARDS OF THE MINISTRY 

We are told sometimes that the minister should 
not think of a reward, that it is not in accord with 
the dignity or idealism of the sacred office. His 
thought should be of duty, of moral obligation, of 
divine commands and human needs rather than 
compensations or personal benefits. But there is 
no adequate reason for such assertions. The min- 
ister is of like passions as other men, and very 
few can be held long to sacrifices and labors by 
abstruse idealism or abstract principles of right- 
eous conduct. Personality cries out for incarna- 
tions. Absolute ethics must have embodiments 
and rest upon sentiments, if its impositions 
are to have response in the human heart, and 
evoke the homage of obedience. The "oughts" 
of life need the persuasions of faith and feeling. 

The scriptures recognize this very clearly, and 

82 



THE MINISTRY AS A LIFE WORK 83 

their greatest teachings are the teachings that 
come through the embodiments of principles in 
the lives of the heroes; the prophets and wise men 
and apostles; and above all in the life of the 
Divine Master. And these great characters, illus- 
trating the marvelous truths that God desired to 
teach the race, were not insensible to the prospec- 
tive rewards of their faithfulness. The writer of 
Hebrews tells us that Moses ''had respect unto 
the recompense of the reward"; and the implica- 
tion is that Abraham and Jacob, Joseph and 
David, and the other worthies mentioned in the 
same chapter shared in the expectation of Moses 
and were inspired to labor and wait for the prom- 
ised indemnity. 

In his teaching Jesus referred to the matter 
again and again, making prospective rewards the 
incentive to faithfulness and zeal. The anticipa- 
tion of reward is fundamental in such parables as 
the talents and the pounds, while it is the essential 
doctrine in the interpretation of our Lord's mar- 
velous picturing of the final judgment as recorded 
in the twenty-fifth chapter of Matthew. 

Jesus himself did not hesitate to claim reward 



84 THE MINISTRY AS A LIFE WORK 

for his faithful performance of the Father's will, 
and in his prayer for his disciples, found in the 
seventeenth of John, petitioned the Father: ''I 
glorified thee on earth, having accomplished the 
work which thou hast given me to do. And now. 
Father, glorify thou me (reward me) with thine 
own self with the glory which I had with thee 
before the world was." 

The young man looking forward to the min- 
istry, to the surrender of his life to self-denying 
and arduous labors, has the right to ask: 'What 
will be the rewards of such a life?" "Is there 
anything that can justify me In investing my youth, 
my manhood, my talent, my life. In this occupa- 
tion?" "Will the Investment pay valuable divi- 
dends?" Livingston asked it as he buried himself 
in the heart of Africa. Paton asked It as he con- 
demned himself to the Isolation of the Islands of 
the sea. Ashmore asked It as he gave his states- 
manlike abilities to the uplift of China. Every 
man who enters this service, at home or abroad, 
whether his talents fit him for a place of leader- 
ship In the great swirling currents of the world's 
life, or for the quiet pursuits of the village pastor- 



THE MINISTRY AS A LIFE WORK 85 

ate, has the right, and ought, to ask concerning 
the adequacy of the reward. 

Some of the compensations are patent even to 
the unbelieving, but the richest and best are in 
those invisible, intangible things that are the most 
precious possessions of the human heart. The 
assets of the kingdom of God that become the 
holdings of the minister are not all visible to the 
unregenerate. 

Some of these rewards become available almost 
coincident with the determination to devote the 
life to divine service, while others await the devel- 
oping experience of the minister, or the culmina- 
tion of divine providence in the final judgment. 

Some one has said that the supreme reward 
that can come to a righteous life is to see itself 
reproduced in some other life. The joy of this 
reproduction is seen in both the natural and the 
spiritual realms. The mother finds abiding happi- 
ness in the reproducing of herself in the life of 
her child. The true teacher has satisfaction in 
the begetting of knowledge and a thirst for knowl- 
edge in the mind of his pupil, and, the Christian 
minister is gladdened as he sees faith blossoming 



86 THE MINISTRY AS A LIFE WORK 

in the hearts of those to whom he proclaims the 
word, and a transfiguring power assuming reg- 
nancy in their lives. The Scriptures suggest, fre- 
quently, that this experience is a reward of faith- 
ful service. The prophet Isaiah pictured the 
suffering Messiah as requited in this manner for 
his sufferings: "He shall see his seed. He shall 
see the travail of his soul and be satisfied.'' 

The disciples of Jesus were "slow of heart to 
believe," and were ofttimes disappointing in the 
response of faith and loyalty, but Jesus seems to 
have found satisfaction in the steadily developing 
power of their faith as they received his message. 
The joy of reproducing himself in them, colors 
the thought of his last great prayer as he entrusts 
them and their future to the Father's care: "As 
Thou hast sent me into the world, even so have 
I also sent them into the world." — "Holy Father, 
keep them in Thy name." 

The minister has another source of satisfaction, 
— and it is no mean indemnity for his heartaches 
and self-denials, in the realization that he is 
devoting himself to the greatest and best things 
of human life; that he is spending himself in 



THE MINISTRY AS A LIFE WORK 87 

building the noblest of humanity's hopes and 
dreams. 

Sometimes the world does not appreciate what 
the minister is contributing to its welfare; some- 
times it stones its prophets, and its benefactors go 
down to the grave covered with neglect. The 
approbation of our fellowmen is precious and 
cheering to the soul, but it is not a necessity. If 
need be, the servant of Jesus can **endure as see- 
ing him who is invisible," and can rejoice that 
even though ''despised and rejected of men," his 
work is hastening the advent of the King. 

But valuable as is the reward that comes from 
the consciousness of reproducing himself in other 
lives, and contributing to the highest good of his 
fellowmen, it is probable that the average min- 
ister finds his keenest joys in the approval of his 
own conscience, and his confidence in the Master's 
final benediction "Well done." 

Ministers are supposedly of tender conscience, 
and their spirits are susceptible to subtle influ- 
ences. For many of them there is sweet and 
blessed reward in the consciousness that they fol- 
low the path of duty; that they tread in the foot- 



88 THE MINISTRY AS A LIFE WORK 

steps of their Lord; that they are obeying the 
great, inherent purposes for which God created 
them, called them, into His kingdom, and then 
inducted them into leadership in His church. 

It is true, a man's mental state is influenced by 
physical conditions, and many a noble soul has 
tortured itself with doubts when all that was 
needed to give poise and joy was a period of rest. 
Nearly every worker has his seasons when the 
fires of hope and faith burn low. But somehow 
God renews his faithful from day to day, and 
courage takes fresh hold of its tasks as it listens 
to the voice of the Lord. When Jesus said to 
his worn and weary disciples, "Come ye apart 
and rest awhile," he simply acted in harmony with 
that divine providence whereby the Father pro- 
vides for the toilers of His kingdom. 

God would have His servants rest in the blessed 
consciousness of His approval. Perhaps, to the 
pious imaginations of many, the richest reward is 
reserved to the last, to be awarded in the king- 
dom of the future. 

The knight of the olden time esteemed himself 
richly repaid for his arduous labors or endurance 



THE MINISTRY AS A LIFE WORK 89 

of dangers if, on bended knee, he could enter the 
presence of his king or press his lips to the finger 
tips of his queen. 

But the minister has something as much deeper 
and richer than that experience of those ancient 
knights, as his King is greater and more glorious 
than the monarchs they served. The minister's 
Lord is the King of Glory, the Mighty One who 
walks in the "midst of the golden candlestick." 

Even while in the flesh, the minister, through 
the eyes of faith, may have a choice and blessed 
perception of his Lord. It is true that we see 
him only as in a '^mirror darkly." We could not 
stand the full effulgence of His glory, but in rap- 
turous moments that he vouchsafes to his faith- 
ful they catch heavenly visions of his supernal 
excellence. And these glimpses of his bliss and 
beauty are simply promises of the felicity that 
shall be granted to them when, having completed 
the work assigned to them, they *'see him as he 
is face to face" and hear him saying "ye have 
been faithful over few things, I will make thee 
ruler over many. Enter thou into the joy of thy 
Lord." 



And he gave some to be apostles; and some, 
prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors, 
and teachers; for the perfecting of the saints, unto 
the work of ministering, unto the building of the 
body of Christ; till we all attain unto the unity 
of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of 
God, unto a full grown man, unto the measure of 
the stature of the fullness of Christ. — Ephesians 
4:11-13. 



CHAPTER IX 

THE PERMANENCY OF THE MINISTRY 

As we consider the present status of the min- 
istry, and seek the prophet's vision for the future, 
several convictions force themselves upon us. 

The first of these is the persuasion that the min- 
istry is not a passing office of the times, but a 
permanent institution of the church. 

Mankind owes a mighty debt to the Christian 
ministry. Ministers have been benefactors of the 
race through all the years since the establishment 
of the office by the apostolic church. They have 
been discoverers of continents, pioneers of civil- 
ization, inspirers of learning, founders of univer- 
sities, reformers of government, proclaimers of 
civil and religious liberty, defenders of the op- 

90 



THE MINISTRY AS A LIFE WORK 91 

pressed, and leaders of leagues of pity and peace 
for the world. They have filled the pages of 
history with the records of great deeds for the 
human brotherhood. The glowing deeds of such 
men as William Brewster, the leader of the Pil- 
grim Exodus to America; Roger Williams, the 
pioneer of Religious Liberty in America; David 
Livingston, the explorer of Darkest Africa; 
Marcus Whitman, the savior of the Northwest 
Territory for the United States ; and hundreds of 
men of like spirit and noble deed, give glory to 
the profession, and places men and nations and 
civilizations under everlasting debts of gratitude. 

Notwithstanding these things, we hear the 
opinion expressed occasionally that the pulpit has 
become a superfluity, that the preacher's mission 
has been fulfilled, and that the world no longer 
needs him or esteems his profession as an essen- 
tial part of the social body. The growth of ritual- 
ism, the development of the printing press, and 
popularization of the newspaper, and the increas- 
ing number of publicity agents, are supposed to 
have superceded the voice of the minister. 

But the written word can never make the 



92 THE MINISTRY AS A LIFE WORK 

spoken word obsolete, nor a business manager 
fulfill the functions of the God-called pastor. 

Our social and political organizations are all 
witnessing for the power of the human voice and 
personality in matters of propaganda. Political 
campaign managers and directors of reform 
movements use the printed page generously; but 
they depend most on the men with the silver 
tongues. 

The minister's calling, consisting so largely of 
the proclamation of the truth by the spoken word, 
is '^rooted in the moral order of human history." 
You cannot eliminate it or supplant it with some- 
thing else without impoverishing the church and 
bringing the world to moral and spiritual bank- 
ruptcy. The voice of the minister, the work of 
the clergyman, is needed today just as keenly as 
when Luther thundered his defiance of Rome ; or 
Edwards set in motion the moral forces of the 
Great Awakening; and Whitefield convicted by 
his eloquence the multitudes of the careless and 
godless. 

The servant of Christ does not need to offer 
apology for his being or for his work. He can 



THE MINISTRY AS A LIFE WORK 93 

face men with dignity and assurance under the 
^'profound conviction that what he has to say, 
the whole world, from prince to beggar, needs to 
hear and heed." 

A second observation is that the ministry of 
today should seek the production of an adequate 
and nobler ministry for the church of tomorrow. 
If the church is a permanent institution and its 
ministry a confirmed and constant factor of its 
life, it is obviously a vital matter to conserve and 
develop the ministerial profession and to per- 
suade choice souls to consecrate themselves to this 
form of service. 

It must be confessed that ministers have not 
always been acutely conscious of this duty. Some- 
times they have not appraised their profession at 
its true worth. To this extent they are responsi- 
ble for the suspicion that the ministry is of no 
value to modern society, and the consequent fail- 
ure of some young men to adopt the profession. 
Timidity and self-consciousness ofttimes prevent 
a proper self-assertion, and the assumption of the 
honorable place that belongs to the preacher of 
righteousness. The prophet of God has no occa- 



94 THE MINISTRY AS A LIFE WORK 

sion to fear the face of man. Of course conceit 
and vanity and bluster have no place in the 
preacher's life, but there is a certain self-appre- 
ciation that is simply manliness. 

This false modesty, the apologetic attitude 
adopted by some clergymen in the presence of 
political or social leaders or men of other profes- 
sions or business, has had harmful reactions upon 
some of the young men. Moreover, this self- 
deceiving humility, coupled with the economic 
handicaps, have made ministers chary of persuad- 
ing their own sons or other choice young men to 
enter the profession. The minister must be con- 
vinced, and act as though he were convinced, that 
his vocation is manly and his work essential to 
society. 

In the measure that he adopts this attitude, the 
minister will find himself begetting spiritual sons 
who gladly follow in his footsteps and rejoice that 
his mantle has fallen upon them. 

Another judgment, and a judgment that is im- 
pressing itself upon the hearts of many leaders in 
the church. Is, that the church of Christ must seek 
both to make attractive the conditions that sur- 



THE MINISTRY AS A LIFE WORK 95 

round the minister, and to obey the Master's 
injunction: 'Tray yc therefore the Lord of the 
harvest that he send forth laborers into his 
harvest." 

The amelioration of conditions is a difficult and 
complex affair, and is in some measure controlled 
by worldly forces ; but the Christian consecration 
and wisdom of the laity can accomplish much, if 
the task is undertaken with any degree of enthu- 
siasm and unity. It will take time to change the 
atmosphere, to transfer economic burdens, and to 
breed large conceptions of liberal treatment; but 
the clergy will not be impatient if it can feel that 
the church is treating the problem seriously, and 
is really determined that its spiritual leaders shall 
have their modicum of respect, honor, and finan- 
cial emoluments. 

Tennyson tells us that *'more things are 
wrought by prayer than this world dreams of," 
and certainly this is true in regard to the possi- 
bilities of prayer in influencing young men to enter 
the ministry. President Horr, of Newton Theo- 
logical Institution, commenting on the Master's 
injunction to pray that laborers might be sent into 



96 THE MINISTRY AS A LIFE WORK 

the harvest fields, tells us "There is a divine urg- 
ency, which in answer to prayer, compels men to 
enter the work of the ministry. There is a call, 
and the church may expect that call to be heard 
when she prays as God has directed.'* 

The church Is approaching the climax of its 
long and marvellous history of benefits conferred 
upon the race. The ministry is facing its supreme 
hour of sacrificial service. No man can predict 
what issues the crisis will present, nor assuredly 
envision the ensuing results. But this is certain 
that clergy and laity alike need to pray, and to 
pray the achieving prayer, that God would so 
add to the forces of the workers that when the 
divine hour of opportunity for mankind shall 
strike, it may not strike in vain. 

"Watchman, what of the night?" "The 
morning cometh." Yes, the morning of God's 
great day Is coming, for the sons and daughters 
of the church shall shortly hear the voice of the 
Master, and thrilling to his command, will lay 
hold of those powers and forces that are able to 
subjugate the hearts of men and enthrone the 
Christ in every realm of human society. 



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